188 MAK : 



fellow-creatures ; that if there be a plan of progres- 

 sive development such as natural science has been 

 recently striving to establish, by which the higher 

 forms of life have been gradually evolved from the 

 lower, then man must seek for his origin in the same 

 course of development ; that this hypothetical process, 

 as applied to man, does not involve anything either 

 degrading or materialistic, but is simply an effort of 

 science to present some comprehensible indication of 

 the creative method, which, so far as we can perceive, 

 works only through means and processes ; and that 

 though the process could be proved to demonstration, 

 it would still leave untouched the plan to which all 

 the ascensive orders of life have ever conformed, and 

 which can only be resolved into the will of the 

 Creator. 



And lastly, that, Progressively, the whole history of 

 the past as well as the experience of the present point 

 to an upward ascension of vitality ; that all the forces 

 of nature with which this ascension has been associated, 

 or upon which it depends, being as active and oper- 

 ative as ever, we may fairly infer a corresponding 

 progression in the future ; that in virtue of his higher 

 nature the progression will be more rapid and per- 

 ceptible in man than in the lower animals ; and that 

 physically, intellectually, socially, and morally, the 

 developments of the future will transcend the man of 



